The daily rigors of being a real estate agent—prospecting, showings, listings, open houses, contract negotiations, marketing, and so much more—are more than enough to fill our plates. This can often lead to less time focusing on building, growing and managing our teams.
Here are a few key tips to help keep your team members engaged, supported and producing, all the while making sure you have sufficient time to focus on the daily needs of your clients. Keep in mind that your team goes well beyond the walls of your office or names on the payroll. Appraisers, tradesmen, lenders and other members of your network become an extension of your brand when they interact with your clients, so treat them as such.
Treat Your Team Members Like You Treat Your Clients
Always have the mantra that you have to “take care of the people who take care of the people.” If your team members feel empowered, supported and have a general feeling of excitement for doing their jobs each day, it will reflect on how they treat their clients. You likely already understand how to do this when interacting with clients—be kind, informed, empathetic, trustworthy, agile, etc.—so simply focus on treating your teammates the same way.
Clear Expectations
A teammate should rarely be surprised by a request you make of them. Knowing what to expect in terms of face-to-face time, office time, covering for each other’s showings and open houses and all the other components of being an agent on a team, can go a long way. Colleagues will usually go the extra mile for each other if there aren’t too many surprises about what is expected of them. When they feel blindsided or tricked into doing something that wasn’t a clear expectation in the beginning, teammates can feel de-energized or taken advantage of.
Empower Your Teammates to Lead From Any Position
The best ideas don’t always come from the boss. Make sure your teammates feel like active decision makers when it comes to the direction and philosophy of the business. When people feel empowered, they feel like they have skin in the game, which is a critical factor in driving the creative problem-solving and idea generation that helps businesses grow.
You want your business to grow. (Who doesn’t?) The time you take to invest in your team members will drive and accelerate the growth you covet. When you take care of the people who take care of your clients, everybody wins.
Carey Chesney is a REALTOR® with the Chesney Team at Foxway Realty – Keller Williams.
For more information, please visit RealEstate.QuickenLoans.com.
